We’re less than two weeks into the 2024 Major League Baseball season and the injury list for every team is piling up with pitchers' names on it.
Just recently, three major starters went down with damaged elbows in a 48-hour period, Eury Perez, Shane Bieber and Spencer Strider.
Bieber's announcement on Monday was a huge blow to Cleveland’s season, as he would be needing Tommy John surgery. He said he initially felt soreness during his Opening Day win against the Athletics, but chalked it up to early season rust. Bieber’s 2024 season lasted 12 innings.
All-in-all, 32 starting pitchers (and counting) are currently sitting on their teams' injury list.
What would've been the top five rotation for Tampa Bay is out as well. Shane Baz and Shane McClanahan both had Tommy John surgery. Drew Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs are less than a year removed from having UCL surgeries. Then there's Taj Bradley, who is dealing with a strained pectoral.
Cincinnati's Nick Lodolo is on that list and even former Red Sonny Gray.
It's an impressive list of great arms. Problem is, they're all sitting on the sidelines.
There are several reasons that could be the cause for this epidemic.
The first would be the installation of the pitch clock. It’s the most obvious argument people will make because it's probably the most significant change to the game in this century (some might argue inter-league play or the designated hitter in the National League, but those are conversations for another day).
And truthfully, this argument does have its merits. It’s forced some pitchers to have to work at a much faster pace than some may be used to in their earlier years. Plus, there’s a possibility it wears the pitcher down quicker and results in less rest between pitches and even innings.
However, the jury is still out on whether or not the clock is a leading factor in all these injuries. The players' union wants to investigate this matter more and it seems that it's warranted.
A second theory would be the way pitchers are trained today. If you compare the differences between training methods now and 20+ years ago, you can see a drastic difference.
However, this one might not have as great an effect on the modern player. Considering the changes to offseason training has been a gradual change over time and has even improved players on-field performance in many cases.
The last theory that comes to mind, seems to be the most significant and drastic change of them all, and that is the emphasis on pitchers being told to throw harder.
The biggest differences can be seen between pitchers today who are told that in order to climb the ladder in the sport, you have to have more velocity behind your throws. This results in an emphasis on throwing and not pitching. And yes, there's a difference in the two meanings.
When describing a pitcher, you're talking about someone who can use different pitches or ball placement to get batters out. It's also worth noting the lack of junk ball pitchers in the game today. In fact, there’s only one knuckleball pitcher left in the majors now, Matt Waldron in San Diego.
Someone like Phil Niekro lasted 27 years in the majors. Charlie Hough lasted 23 full seasons and parts of two seasons. Hough is the last pitcher to start 40 games in a season and there isn’t a pitcher to top 250 innings pitched since Justin Verlander did it in 2011 at the age of 28. Hough was 40.
In terms of a thrower, that's the majority of what you see today. These pitchers are asked to throw harder, get more velocity on their pitches and hope they can last 5 innings.
And if you add into the equation the pitch clock cutting down on rest time between throws, this could be a reason for such a spike in injuries.
This isn't something new — because pitchers have always gotten hurt. This has more to do with the players at the top level of baseball suffering injuries to ligaments as a result from shorter-burst, higher-intensity throwing. Before, the injuries that pitchers suffered from were due to long-term overuse.
And, as many experts believe, it doesn't help that scouts at the college and pro level incentivize pitchers to throw in a way that might be the root cause of the game's injury issues: Throw harder, perform better.
It's also bad for the health of pitchers and the game, and that's a fact.
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